One thing I learned about driving on the highways in Mexico beforehand was the use of the left turn signal. If you’re on a highway in Canada or the US, a left turn signal indicates that you want to turn left. Not so in Mexico. If you do that here, it means, “I’m slow, please pass me.”

If you then try to turn left, you could wind up in a major accident.

If you want to turn left off a highway, here’s how you do it. You first turn on your hazard lights, then you begin to slow down. Once you’re ready to turn, you turn off your hazard lights, then turn on your signal light and make the turn. I learned all this from a taxi driver in Las Brisas de Huatulco. It was a great lesson.

I used the left turn signal on the Baja highway many times down here. It worked like a charm. Other drivers, at times, would do the same thing for me. They would even watch the road ahead, to make sure the oncoming lane was free of traffic.